42BY12

Archive for May, 2009

You see yourself laughing with friends on a boat, perhaps, a merrily clinking drink in your hand, with a little paper umbrella, recounting stories to captivated friends? Snapping photos of the Great Pyramid or strolling through some exotic, colorful bazaar? Or maybe you’d like to do nothing but play golf everyday and lunch in the sun? Well, we hope we’re not the first to tell you that Social Security isn’t going to cover that stuff. When it comes to clichés, we try to avoid them like the plague, but here’s one that is most definitely true: Failing to plan is planning to fail.

To enjoy your Golden Years to their full extent, you absolutely have to prepare for them, and the sooner the better. Fortunately, retirement plans such as IRAs, 401(k)s, and 403(b)s are excellent vehicles for doing just that. Also, if you’ve been paying off that big house that got you through your full nest period, there’s a way to make that house start paying you back: the reverse mortgage. The Internet is a great resource in these areas as well.

And once you are retired, that doesn’t mean you can slack off on all the financial tricks and skills you’ve gained or you could very well end up spending your “retirement” greeting people at your neighborhood supermegacenter. That’s why we have a chapter on great ways of managing your money in retirement.

Once you do get a grip on your finances and manage to start your nest egg, you may notice that your egg attracts predators and has become vulnerable to new dangers. One growing danger is that of identity theft, and you need to know how to avoid falling prey to those who would use information against you in order to take away what’s yours. And where do you keep your money? In the bank, right? Well, banking itself has gone through the online revolution, and it’s a very good idea to know options and pitfalls in this area.

The main way most people avoid financial disasters in their lives is by buying insurance, which (knock on wood) pays things off when bad things happen. Besides health insurance, which we cover in Book II, there are three other main forms of insuring yourself against catastrophic losses: homeowner’s insurance, auto insurance, and life insurance. We tell you what and what not to look for in all three categories.

There’s one other “predator” out there that drools over the thought of your moolah: That would be the government, which seems to want a piece of everything you do. It’s all very well and good, of course, to pay your fair share to enjoy the benefits of living in a modern society, but there’s no reason to pay more than that out of ignorance, is there? That’s why we include a chapter on how to deal intelligently with your tax bill and how to avoid tipping Uncle Sam unnecessarily.